Strict action likely against Somnath Chatterjee

New Delhi, Jul 23: The CPI(M) is likely to take strict action against speaker Somnath Chatterjee on Wednesday, July 23 after he defied the party to continue as Lok Sabha Speaker and preside over the July 22 trust vote in Parliament.

Top CPI-M leaders will meet on Wednesday, July 23 to decide on the action to be taken against the Speaker. Wednesday's meeting may well see Chatterjee being expelled from the primary membership of the party, a post that he has been in for almost half a century.Somnath reportedly told West Bengal Left Front chairman Biman Bose over telephone that he wants to continue as the Speaker and if he is pushed too hard to quit the post, then he will even resign from party itself.

His clarification came in response to the attack by Bose, who had said yesterday, “What is the justifiability of his (Somnath) continuing in office after withdrawal of support to the UPA government?"

Even senior CPI(M) leader SitaramYechury had pointed out that the matter had been discussed in the central committee which had authorised the politburo to take an "appropriate decision" at the "appropriate time".

Incidentally, the CPI(M) central committee is meeting in Delhi and is expected to ponder upon their future course of action over the issue. They for sure are in a fix as Somnath is one of their senior most leaders and the Left is unsure of what action to take.

Somnath on his part is very angry that the party included his name in the list of Left MPs, who had withdrawn support to the UPA government. His contention was that as long as he is the Speaker, he should be kept above party politics.

OneIndia News